In 2019 Sarah was crowned World Cup champion by the World Mountain Running Association. After a series of seven races throughout the season, including a win in Wales, Sarah secured victory with a second place in Slovenia, the final race in the series. Sarah is a Cumbrian-based athlete, a brand ambassador for Inov-8 – who sponsor the Lakeland Trails series – an Irish international mountain runner (representing her country no less than 25 times!), a qualified ecologist and a professional running coach. She lives with her partner – and fellow Inov-8 brand ambassador – Paul Tierney and their two border collies, Quilla and Lupo, in a shepherd’s hut in Windermere. “You can’t have a good race every time, but you can gain something from each and every run. If you have a bad race, find one or two positives to take away from it, even if it’s just something you now know you’d do differently, and then start looking ahead to the next one.” Info/Stats:
• UK Athletics-Certified Trail & Fell Running Coach
• PhD Biogeochemistry, MPhil Chemistry BSc (Hons) Biochemistry
• Mountain Running World Cup Winner 2019
• Italian Mountain Running & Vertical Kilometre Champion 2020
• Top ten – World/European Mountain Running Championships – 2012, 2013, 2015, 2018
• Winner, Snowdon International Mountain Race 2014, 2015, 2019
• European Cross Country Championships Team Gold 2012
• Irish Cross-Country Champion 2014
• 5k PB 15:46 / 10k PB 33:33
Listen to Sarah now! New episodes of the Tough Girl Podcast go live every Tuesday and Thursday at 7am UK time – Hit the subscribe button so you don’t miss out. The Tough Girl Podcast is being sponsored throughout March by Inov-8. Get your exclusive 15% discount code for inov-8.com by signing up HERE (https://www.inov-8.com/ambassador/running/tough-girl-podcast) Show notes
• Being based out of the Lake District usually
• Woking as a running coach
• Living in a camper van in Spain
• Welcoming the sunshine
• Doing van life for the past 5 years
• Heading to the Alps and Ireland
• Growing up and her early years
• Racing short races from 6 years old
• Moving to America and having the American high school experience
• Moving back to the UK at 21
• Being on the girls track team
• Going to college/university to study biochemistry and joining the running team in her final year of Michigan State University
• Training with the university team and learning how to become a better runner
• Her ambitions with running
• What happened after leaving university
• Not seeing a future in running and focusing on getting a job in the UK
• Doing a Masters at Sheffield University, UK
• Winning her first race in 5 years
• Key races and her love of the Italian mountain races
• How running makes her feel
• Loving the simplicity of running
• Getting into cycling
• What is mountain running and how it’s different from ultra running
• Climbing at a 30% gradient
• Running uphill? Running or power walking?
• Why walking is encouraged
• Not fully trusting her ankles
• Magical moments in races that really stands out
• Training and working with a running coach – Robbie Simpson (https://www.hiddenpeakrunning.com)
• Example of a training session for the Yorkshire 3 Peaks Race (https://www.threepeaksrace.org)
• Dealing with injury
• Rest and recovery
• Mental side of running and Sarah’s top tips and advice
• Writing down goals….
• The Dream Race — Jungfrau Marathon 2022 (https://www.jungfrau-marathon.ch/en/)
• Taking the van to Switzerland
• Having 3 passports!
• The early start of van life and how it progressed
• A day in the life of Sarah
• Nutrition and fueling being a vegetarian and focusing on protein at every meal
• Working with a running coach
• Being supported by Inov-8 and working as an ambassador
• Connect with Sarah online
• Final words of advice and wisdom for women who want to get into running
• How having the right gear can help with confidence in the mountains
Social Media Website: www.missinglinkcoaching.co.uk (https://www.missinglinkcoaching.co.uk/) Instagram: @missinglinkcoach (https://www.instagram.com/missinglinkcoach/) Facebook: @MissingLinkCumbria (https://www.facebook.com/missinglinkcumbria) *** The Tough Girl Podcast is being sponsored by Inov-8 throughout March. Get your exclusive 15% discount code for inov-8.com by signing up HERE (https://www.inov-8.com/ambassador/running/tough-girl-podcast) W…
Hello and welcome to the tough girl podcast which is all about motivating and inspiring you while increasing the amount of female role models in the media I’m your host Sarah Williams in March I’m currently doing the March daily Mile Challenge which involves running one mile every day throughout
March to help promote and support the challenge innovate to sponsoring the tough girl podcast this month I’m speaking to 10 Runners who are going to be sharing their running Journey the challenges they faced and overcome how they started what they’ve learned along the way and provide loads of top tips
And advice to help you start running keep you running or to push you to take on your next running challenge you can use tough girl 20 tough girl20 to get a 20% discount on all trainers and running gear visit innovates website at inov d.com today I’m delighted to be speaking
To Dr Sarah mccormac she’s a professional running coach Irish International Mountain Runner innovate sponsored athlete 2019 Mountain Running World Cup champion and 2020 winner of the Italian national Mountain running championships Enjoy I’m Sarah McCormack I’m a a mountain Runner um based out of the Lake District usually um but I like traveling around the place so right now I’m in Spain in my Camp event and I’m a running coach so that’s kind of what I do for a
Job and that um enables me also to kind of keep traveling around and and get to various races and things like that oh fantastic how is how is life in the camp ofan in Spain at the moment yeah good it’s uh starting to warm up a bit I
Wouldn’t say it’s like hot exactly but um it was kind of British weather when I got here which is not what you want after three days of driving so um it’s Sun’s starting to come out now and um it’s yeah nice to be um in the dry for a
Bit yeah how long have you been doing van life for I think we’ve had a van on and off well mostly on for the last sort of five years um and mostly getting out to the Alps the Italian Alps in it and that would be the main trip and um
Sometimes to Ireland as well so this is my first time getting the van out to Spain which I’m quite excited about really happy to be here now oh lovely well definitely want to talk more about van life and what sort of training that you’re doing out in Spain and what sort
Of training you’ve done out in the Alps but one of the things I always love to to find out is what you were like as a little girl and growing up so tell us more about your early years your family did you have any siblings were you quite
Sporty outdoorsy were you into running from a young age yeah I think I was I did get started on running quite early because my parents Ran So they would just get myself and my sister out running as well or or else out cycling while they ran if they kind of wanted to
Move at a a slightly quicker Pace but yeah think I was probably doing races from you know just super short informal races from the time I was six maybe so my mom’s English and she’s from the Lake District and my dad’s Irish but they moved to Michigan for my dad’s job when
I was little so we kind of spent a lot of time there growing up um so originally all my running was very very flat because this sou of Michigan is very flat and so it wasn’t until I moved to the UK when I was 21 that I got more
Into kind of Hill running which was something that I kind had always wanted to do and just never really had the chance to before that point so you had the American like high school experience then yeah and of course at that time it just felt really normal but um you know
After after a number of years away from the states now we sort of look back and think oh yeah that that actually was kind of cool you know we had the cheerleaders and the marching band and the football players and I was kind of um and we had an enormous High School of
About um 6,000 kids so what it meant was like the girls track team we had like over a hundred athletes and so um there I was sort of in like a bit of a nerdy subaction of the track team so it was kind even though you know I’m not like
Um I don’t think many people like crowds or like you know massive populated places it was kind of nice to have such a big school because it made it a bit easier to sort of find where you fit into all of it so so I actually kind of
Really enjoyed um the American high school and college experience that is huge numbers I’m just thinking like I think we only had about like 50 girl did we even have 50 girls in our year and you had like a 100 on the track team yeah yeah what did you go to college to
Study and did you run throughout College as well yeah yeah I did um I did biochemistry and ecology at Uni and um at first I kind of didn’t to be honest I didn’t really you know I did I certainly didn’t get a scholarship to go on to the
Track and cross country teams there it was Michigan State University that I went to and so by about my third year I kind of got up the courage to see if I could just join the team as a walk-on um and I think they were just looking to
Boost numbers because they kind of got it on without really being that fit but that was a really good experience to be able to train um and kind of progress quite a lot with the University team because they’ve got a huge amount of resources going to like the American you
Know University college sport um program so you know we had like two full-time coaches and our own personal track and gym and yeah just a lot of resources and a lot of people’s time and effort going into helping you become a better Runner basically yeah what were your Ambitions
With regards to running so you know going back to your your your 20s at College were you thinking what you wanted to do afterwards were you thinking it was going to be to be involved with running or were you going to go down like the biochemistry route
It’s a funny system because you really do like once you leave University in America it’s kind of like well unless you’re going to become a professional I didn’t feel like there’s very much out there apart from you know entering the odd Road 10K like they don’t even really
Have cross country leagues kind of leave uni in the states there’s just not a lot out there organized sport wise unless you’re going to go and join like a professional running team and I think when I finished I actually stopped running for a few months and kind of
Didn’t really see much of a future for myself in it and and I was just focusing on getting a job in the UK in a kind of science-based Feld I was based at Sheffield uni and I started doing a masters there as well and so I got
Linked up with the Athletics Club at Sheffield and got running and racing again and um and actually I think because I’d gone from basically like NCAA Division One racing down to like the South Yorkshire cross country league and was able to just have a slightly smaller Pond to compete in so to speak
It it was a bit of a confidence boost to finally go from as very middle of the pack at Uni just to win a race for the first time in maybe five five or six years was a bit of a confidence boost and and absolutely absolutely good for
You so what’s your favorite type of running to do like you have like a favorite race a favorite distance um there a number of races that are really just ones I try not to miss each year I suppose um and they’re kind of variable like there’s some some races
In the UK that I really love love like Carney in Scotland and some of our local ones our local Club emble side AC put on but I also love the Italian mountain races just because of the atmosphere and the kind of enthusiasm around Mountain racing there’s a race weekend in the
Italian Alps called pis tree vertical it’s a it’s a vertical kilometer so it’s basically a race where you you ascend 1,000 MERS of climb that’s on the Saturday and then the same in the same place there’s like a 25 5K up and down Mountain race on the Sunday and they
Just make it into this massive spectacular Festival like for instance on the race in the Sunday all the villages that you run through have a a competition for best support and they’re all in fancy dress and there’s like brass bands playing and um they get all their like household pets in fancy dress
As well and um it’s just like the whole entire region is out there supporting you and screaming at you so there’s a lot of Italian mountain races that I love just for like the amount of community involvement and and enthusiasm and and support that you get while you’re competing that sounds incredible
I love saying I don’t know if this is a controversial opinion to have but I was like I love seeing dogs dressed up in like fancy dress I think it’s super cute but that that might not be the best thing for dogs oh I love it so almost
Coming back to basics you know what do you love about running you know how does it make you feel when you run um yeah I just I I guess I think probably like a lot of Runners I just love this Simplicity of it like I’ve gotten a bit
More into cycling recently as well and and I seriously like love cycling but but there’s just something about like just putting on a pair of shoes and just going out the door especially when you’re traveling and you just get to see new places and kind of have adventures and experiences that you wouldn’t
Otherwise have so it’s just like such a natural human movement that’s kind of available to just about everyone and it’s just so simple and you know yeah I just love it so you a mountain Runner which I know is different from ultra running and I’d love for you to maybe
Just give your definition of of what is a mountain Runner is it just yeah so it tends to be shorter distances so it can be really short like some of the the vertical kilometer races they’d be around the 3K distance so you’re just you’re basically climbing at like a 30%
Gradient and the race distance is super short and then you know you get some Marathon distance races anything above that would tend to fit into more of the ultra running category but within Mountain running as a sport there’s like a huge variety of different types of races you could include fell running in
That category if you want to it’s a bit controversial because I’m not sure all fell Runners would agree with me but fell running is kind of distinct from like the more European style Mountain running in that like rfl running in the UK usually involves some root choice and
Some like not necessarily navigation as such but at at the very least they need to know where you’re going whereas as in in Italian and and French and Swiss Mountain races for instance you you tend to have a flagged course and also the the mountains are so much bigger in the
Alps that you quite a lot of the time you’re not actually going to the top of them whereas in the UK we we do run to the top of mountains and most of our races or to the top of Hills at least yeah so running uphill are you actually running running
Up the hill or is it more of like power walking up the hill the mountain it depends it definitely depends and like I remember when I started when I just moved to the UK and I was like right I’m going to go for a fell run and I started
Running up this hill and I got maybe like I don’t know five or six minutes up one of the the fs near I’m in the how gills I just didn’t know any fell Runners and I’d never been F running and I didn’t realize that walking is like
Encouraged and quite a lot of the time especially in in longer races it’s more efficient you know if you’re a good hiker then you can overtake people who are running when it’s a steep climb but then again on on the other hand in the vertical kilometer races the really top
People are are running pretty much every step but that’s like I’m talking about like world champions at VK kind of distance are able to pretty much run every step for 35 40 minutes at a 30% gradient so it kind of depends on the race and Hiking is definitely an
Important skill for even like very very top Mountain Runners to have but the the more you can run the better usually yeah and so with mountain running which do you prefer do you prefer going uphill or downhill um it kind of depends I do really like up and downhill races um
Because in Europe you get a lot of uphill only races what I don’t like is when you can’t see where you’re putting your feet because I don’t always fully trust my ankles so you know in the UK we have a lot of terrain that’s like quite thick vegetation with potentially like
Rocks and divots underneath and I wouldn’t be the best at that because I’m not I’m I don’t fully dress my ankles and I don’t want the two months off running involved in like really going over a your ankle so I do like descending but I like descending where I
Can where I can see where my feet are going I’d love you to share one of those magical races that you’ve been a part of and share maybe one of those moments or just describe the race tea that you know really stands out for whatever reason i’
I’d love to hear some of the racing and running stories yes so I think one that really stands out to me is um is one I’ve done a couple times in it’s not quite the dolomites it’s like just to the east of the dolomites so you’re getting towards the Border
Very near the border with Austria but also quite near the border with Slovenia in the Italian Alps and um it’s a relay and it’s called Tre Refuge so it’s called trade Refuge because you run between three Mountain refuges so the race starts at a refuge and the first
Runner runs uphill only for about 40 minutes to up Mountain Refuge where your second second um runner on your team is waiting and so they’ve had to hike up earlier which is kind of unfortunate for them but um so usually I run the first leg and you run uphill only to this
Refuge that’s about 2,000 meters up and then um the second leg Runner is they’re waiting for you they’re wearing a bike helmet because the second leg is has got a little bit of kind of I wouldn’t say via fata but it’s got ropes and chains and ladders that you’ve got to use as
You go along and it’s more of a traversing leg so they kind of do a bit of up and down but they kind of need that help of these ropes and chains to get over some of the bigger Boulders and kind of Rocky bits and then they get to
The third refuge and they hand over to your descending Runner and they basically have like a 5k bomb downhill back to um the starting point and it’s just an amazing there’s just something really special about like being in a relay team because it’s kind of like there’s extra pressure because you don’t
Want to let your team members down but it’s just it’s brilliant as well because you all get to kind of compare stories afterwards and and there’s all the um the strategy element of who’s going to go on which leg and that kind of thing and yeah it’s just absolutely brilliant
It’s stunning scenery and because I usually do the first leg then I can kind of Trot around the rest of the route at my own pace and just take in the views in a more relaxed way so I think it’s kind of the nicest leg to do in a way
That sounds incredible like although I’m thinking like the second leg you know with the chains and everything else like going at PACE like awesome absolutely awesome yeah it’s really cool I’d like to hearit a little bit more about your training like how does training work for
You you know you you obviously a running coach um and you’ve obviously got that knowledge and experience do you set your own training plans or do you work with a running coach as well who helps you um you know put your plans in place yeah I’ve got a coach as well he’s called
Robbie Simpson he’s a really good um marathon runner and Mountain Runner and I started working with him about two years ago and I think one of the things that everyone can benefit from in terms of having a coach is just that objectivity because it’s just quite hard
Both when things are going well it’s hard to kind of re yourself in and when things aren’t going well it can be hard to kind of leave the emotional side of it to one side and make kind of just objective decisions in terms of what’s best for your training so I think it’s
Just good to have someone who’s kind of one step away from from things and a bit more detached helping you make decisions and and obviously like Robbie brings a lot of experience of his own in terms of his running and racing and he’s really just like kind of mixed up my training
And brought some new challenging sessions to it as well so I’ve really been enjoying that yeah let’s hear a little bit more about those challenging sessions what are are they Hills are they Sprints splet training what what are those challenging sessions look like a bit of everything so like for instance
Uh next week I think I’ve got two by 20 minutes uphill so run uphill for 20 minutes turn around run back down and then run back up again for 20 minutes minutes so that’s one of my sessions I’m training for um Yorkshire Three Peaks at
The minute so that’s kind of like a 23 mile race obviously on the Yorkshire Three Peaks and so I’m doing quite a lot of long tempos as well so it just be like just go out and run steady for 70 or 90 minutes on kind of undulating
Terrain which is good as long as you can like stop yourself from looking at your watch too much because otherwise the time sort of doesn’t go by too quickly do you train at all in relation to like your cycle to to p and stuff like that
Um I don’t to be honest because I’ve got a a coil so I don’t really tend to have Cycles have you ever dealt with any injury yes um I’ve I’ve just given myself one yesterday and oh no yeah I’m really annoyed because I was running it
Was basically my first run Since U my first trail run since getting to Spain and I genuinely still don’t know what I did all I know is one minute I was running the next minute I twisted my ankle and I was on the ground so I seem
To have twisted my ankle and really whacked my knee on the ground so I’m just waiting to see how that develops and it’s funny because like as a coach I’ve you know got a number of Runners who are dealing with similar things right now and I’m like look it’s fine
It’s just part of the process we know that it’s not always plain sailing these things happen and then when it’s yourself you’re just like it all goes out the window you know it’s just like oh this is just unbelievable I can’t believe this happened I’ve just got here
Um what if it doesn’t get better kind of thing but um I’ve done all these things before so it’s just a bit of a waiting game and I’ve got my bikes with me so I will make the most of it what do you do for your rest and Recovery yeah I don’t
Really like resting like similar to a lot of Runners but I tend to if I’m having rest day I’ll just go for a hike and I’ve got the dogs so I’ll just take them out for a walk and and it’s kind of um and I think hiking like we talked
About earlier it’s super relevant to Mountain running anyway and when you’re hiking up a hill you kind of get your heart rate to a similar kind of level as if you were running on the flat but it’s just a bit lower impact on the joint so
I’ll tend to if I’m having a rest day I’ll just go for like a little hike unless the weather is really crap and then I’m quite happy to just stay inside yeah you know as well as the the physicality of the races that you’re doing and um the races you know working
With a coach you know doing the the doing the rest and Recovery getting the hiking in there’s also like the mental side like the psychological side of running I just to love to hear more about you know how how you make that work for you are you doing anything
Specific to help you with your running in terms of the mental preparation I wouldn’t say I’m doing anything specific as such but I would say that just racing in itself is a really good way of building kind of a great breadth of experience to draw on for the
Next race so whether it’s learning from something that doesn’t go well or from being at a point in a race where you think I’m not going to sustain this I’m going to blow up and then managing to hang on kind of I think they all all race experiences whether it goes the way
You want or doesn’t go the way you want it tends to just add to that kind of sort of pool of resources that you have to call on in the next race and I want say I I always get it right definitely like I think my best races come from
When I feel like I’m racing myself or when I have very like internal goals so just things like oh you know trying to be faster than last year or trying to make sure that I completely empty the tank rather than I have to beat such and
Such or I have to finish in a certain position so I think like when I create goals I feel like I have more control around I to race better and so that’s something I’m I’m trying to work on is you know because you do get races where
It might be a trial race and and you need to be top three to qualify for something so it’s kind of harder in those races to set that to one side but you can ask yourself well let’s say I do have my best race and I come top three
What does that look like what does the execution of that top three race look like well it you know and then play all those things out in terms of pacing and fueling and positive feedback loop in terms of how your your psychological side of things um and then focus on
Those things rather than focusing on on actually stay in your top three yeah just trying to keep everything under my own control I suppose do you write your goals down I wouldn’t say I do although I do quite often encourage some of my ultra Runners to do that because I think
Especially in the long races it does really help to have your thoughts in order um it’s probably something I could benefit from doing as well yeah do you have a dream race I’m doing One race this year that I’ve kind of had in the
Back of my mind for a long time um which is Young fra um and I just got an entry for that like last week so I’m quite excited about that because I’m just finally starting to feel a bit more confident at the kind of 20 to 25 mile
Race distance so that’s not till September but I I’m really looking forward to that one well yeah tell us a little bit more about about the race um yes so it’s in Switzerland it’s about Marathon distance it’s quite in one to Pace because it’s quite flat for the
First half and then it turns into more of an uphill only race for the second half and I would still feel like my forte lies in in flatter running because of spending so long when I was younger running cross country in track so it’s kind of a balancing act between trying
To exploit the part of the race that suits me the most but also save enough in the tank to get up quite a long climb in the second half um so yeah I’m really looking forward to that one oo so is what what is your strategy what’s your
Plan I’m not sure if I have one yet um I think I’ve got two races so I’ve got Yorkshire Three Peaks and then I’ve got another race sial that’s about 19 miles in August and I think because they’re both kind of in a similar type of race
I’ve got those two to kind of try and organize my thoughts for for young frow so hopefully things will fall together and my coach Robbie he’s won young FR a few times so I think he’ll be able to advise on that as well oh brilliant and will you be taking the van to
Switzerland yes I’m hoping to be in the van in Europe for most of the summer this year because um I think last year we we weren’t allowed they didn’t want anyone from the UK entering Austria and potentially Switzerland unnecessarily it was about end of July before before we
Were able to get over so I missed a few races and bits and Bob so I’m hoping to just get out properly at the start of the summer this year and then spend most of the summer in Europe yeah how are you going to cope with like the 90-day limit
Does that sort of fit in with your plans I’m lucky because I have a an IR pass oh my God yeah you got an Irish oh I’m so jealous so wait hold on so you got a British passport an Irish passport and an American passport yes yes I’m like
Jason born wow that’s a triple whammy right there yeah it’s handy yeah and and it’s a real shame that 90day role I know a lot of people who are like really affected by it so hopefully someday down the line doesn’t exist anymore when we rejoin Europe that’s my plan that’s my
Dream anyway I’d love to hear more about van life when did that sort of decision come about when did you get your van like how easy did you buy a converted one did you build it yourself you know talk to us a little bit more about the
Early start of Van years yeah I think like the first van that I bought with my partner was like it was really not fit for purpose for what we wanted and we were just like so excited to have a van we kind of so we bought a little
Transporter that it didn’t have a high roof or a roof that raised itself up so you could you couldn’t really stand up in it it was just quite small the bed was Tiny and we’d go out to Italy for like three or four weeks in it and just
Be really cramped but still kind of obviously enjoyed it quite a lot but um I think it was one of those things where you almost don’t know what you want until you kind of know what you don’t want I’m sure other people probably make better first band choices than we needed
But that one was Tiny and then after that we went for um a much bigger so it’s a long wheel based citen relay that you could stand up in and that just made all the difference in the world and then this one’s similar to Long wheel based
Pugo boxer so this one we got it converted which is why we were vaness for like six or seven months last year waiting for the conversion to happen and so it’s just like such a relief to have a van again now because I think once
You’ve been a van person you kind of are always van person person and being without a van was a real challenge I’d love to hear a little bit more about your daily life in the van like how does it work like yeah up training coffee working online like yeah fill us in
What’s what a day in the life of Sarah um well yes coffee is a big part of that so like that would be number one priority in the morning is just like a nice Italian style MCA poot coffee and then I’ve got the dog with me so she is
Not too patient when comes to like getting out for a morning walk or run so this morning because any issue I was walking but um for instance yesterday it was a coffee and then get out running and then come back for some porridge and then emails and training programs and an
Afternoon cycle um and the sun’s not going down here till about 700 now which is great because you can kind of get two training sessions in without having to like squeeze them in together in a six-h hour space of time so and then yeah after that it’s just a a little one pot
Dinner of some sort and I usually tend to work until maybe 8:00 p.m. because I get a bit of a slow start like I might not start working until after my morning run so I might not start until half1 and then I’ll work kind of into the evening
And that’s it really I’d love to chat to you a little bit about your nutrition and your fueling like what what have you found that works for you I know it’s very individual but I always think it’s interesting just to hear different people’s nutrition um that that they follow so
That people can pick and choose maybe think oh I I could try that or actually maybe I won’t try that you know what what what have you found that really works for you especially with the you know fueling during races after races before races I’m vegetarian and one
Thing I’ve been doing a lot more recently is um focusing on protein and and trying to get enough protein every meal so I’ve been having a lot more like skier and Greek yogurt for breakfast and and eggs for lunch and then something like maybe bean based for dinner and
Just being aware if think in the past I would have maybe only really been getting significant amounts of protein at dinner whereas now I’m trying to get that at every meal which I think is probably important regardless of whether or not you’re vegetarian really yet fueling in races that’s something I
Think it’s really important to practice while you’re training as well so you can’t really um you know just jump into a long race and start like eating gels along the way and just expect your body to be able to kind of um handle that like I I know that some people can do
That but it’s a little bit of a kind of potluck whether or not your body is going to be happy for you to to try and maintain you know six and a half minute Ming while while also eating so I try and like on my long Tempo runs and
Longer sessions I try and practice race style fueling and I I like gels I’m quite happy with gels like the mountain fuel jellies and that sort of thing so I just try and and when I’m doing a harder session that’s specific to a long race
I’ll just try and basically fuel as if I were racing in and it just eliminates kind of any unknown on race day basically so one of the things that you mentioned earlier is that you are a running coach and your website is missinglink coaching. co.uk and you do
Have like an online run coaching program and for those people who are maybe thinking oh should I get a running coach should I not get a running coach you know how does it work I’d love you to share a little bit more about how it works for you because I I think coaching
Is amazing it’s it’s something that I’ve had um I’ve had like life coaching I work with a personal trainer I get so much value from it and I think it’s just it’s a great opportunity for people to really you know improve and develop so yeah I’d love to hear more about how it
Works for you with the with the online coaching yeah so so it’s kind of um based around that we’ll create a a training program for you online so obviously there’s a kind of initial consultation where we try and get to know more about the person their training history what their goals are
You know any kind of challenges in in terms of their available time or injuries and and just kind of basically try and get to know the person as a runner in a holistic way and then um build a program around that leading up to their goal races then you know once your program’s
Online and we might upload say four weeks of training at a time but it’s very interactive and it’s kind of designed to be sort of um adjusted as we go along so we encourage lots of communication and feedback so that if you’ve got an injury or you’ve got ill
Or whatever then the plan changes and yeah it’s I like to think there’s a bit of support um involved as well in terms of you know if you if you do have an injury or you get ill and and some people are unlucky and they have
Multiple things going on in a year that are just a bit frustrating then you’ve got someone there to kind of they’re just kind of on your team and they’re there to help you problem solve and kind of adjust as needed and keep focusing on the future and that type of thing so
Yeah there’s very much a very interactive side of it as well so you are actually supported by innovate and innovate are sponsoring the podcast and sponsoring the March daily Mile Challenge which I’m running at the moment which is running one mile every day encouraging people to get Outdoors
To get active and to go for a run and I’d love to hear your story of being an ambassador with innovate like how did that relationship come about how long have you been working with them for and what are some of your favorite pieces of
Gear that you use um yeah it’s been a while now so I think it must be eight or nine years um that I’ve been working with innovate and um they are very local to us in the Lake District so their main office is based about four miles up the
Road from from where I live so I’ve got a number of friends who who work there as well but when I started being a sponsored athlete I don’t think I really knew anyone but I came along to um one of their kind of yearly conferences and
And got to know people and um yeah they’re just super friendly and and they really understand kind of especially the demands of racing in the UK um on trail and fell which I think is quite unique L Terrain in the UK is very different to like your American style or european St
Style trails and the weather is a bit different as well so um you know they design lots of waterproof kit and and shoes that are fit for purpose in the UK um as well as abroad so I definitely think in terms of shoes for racing on British mountains they make the best
That there is so I really like their waterproof jackets are brilliant and then I tend to wear the xtel and Ultra shoes for most of my races unless they’re like if it’s quite a runnable non-technical sort of Trail race then I’ll go for more of a um Terra Ultra
Type shoe but y I think all their all their gear has always worked for me I think it’s brilliant so really happy with that relationship and I have to ask you how many pairs of trainers do you have oh quite a lot yeah we’ve got um we’ve
Actually got a shoe tree at the house which is basically a tree with loads of pairs of shoes in it that was um kind of set up as a Christmas installation and never really taken down but it’s handy in a way because when people get to the
House and see the shoes in the tree they know they’re in the right place they might be like oh you must like running yeah just a small bit Yeah so I’d love to know where can people connect with you how can they follow you online where’s the best place for them
To go um yeah so our our website as you said is missinglink coaching. co.uk um and and I’m on Instagram as Missing Link coach as well so that’s where we are perfect and Sarah I’d also like to give you this opportunity to share your final words of advice final words of wisdom
For other women out there who want to get into running they want to move their body more they want to get outside get into the fresh air get into the mountains what advice would you have for them but please don’t say just do it anything else apart from
That um yeah I mean there’s I think there’s multiple things really one is to join a group obviously because I think you just there’s so much kind of shared experience and and that you can benefit from by joining joining a trail running group also there’s things like um the
Fell Runners Association put on navigational courses um that might help your kind of confidence to get out into the hills um and they’re just like one day or weekend courses and definitely I think having the right gear will help confidence as well like when I started
Mountain running I just just went out in my road shoes and when I finally bought a pair of fell shoes I was like why why has no one told me how much of a difference these make in terms of the grip and that sort of thing so and you
Know like in fell races in the UK most of them have a mandatory kit requirement where you need you need to carry with you waterproof top and bottoms hat gloves Compass whistle and I usually throw a foil blanket in there as well so if you have Kit where you feel confident
That if you were to do something to your ankle or whatever that you’d be able to you know stay warm and dry until someone came to help you I think that really helps with confidence as well although if you’re a true beginner you know you might just be going out on more local
Lowlevel Trails anyway but um definitely having the right gear I think will improve your confidence absolutely Sarah thank you so much for on T podcast and sharing more about your journey into running and your top tips and advice to inspire other Runners to get out there
And to go for a run best of luck with all your future races I know that we will be following along thank you so much cheers Sarah hey tribe how you doing I hope you are well so my voice is probably a little bit huskier than normal because I’ve been away this weekend at the national outdoor expo which was held at the NEC in Birmingham so I done a lot of talking but I met so many incredible
People there so massive thank you to everyone who came up to me to say hello to take a selfie it was awesome to connect with you and I really appreciated your feedback and thoughts about the podcast and what I’m doing with tough girl challenges so if you haven’t heard of the national outdoor
Expo it’s held well it’s normally held every year obviously it’s been delayed for the past couple of years so the atmosphere was incredible but it’s all about walking climbing running uh water camping eating Outdoors traveling loads of inspiration loads of Kit loads of new check loads of stuff on nutrition and
Loads of advice basically to get outside and to get active I actually work as an ambassador so what that actually means is I get my name and details on the website and you also get free tickets if you ordered them in January February so there was a discount code like s
Williams so if you’re following my socials you probably saw that I just had an amazing time just some of the women that I caught up with and some of the women that I spoke with have actually been on the tough girl podcast before so these names are probably very familiar
To you so women like Anna mcnuff so Anna was there on Sunday talking all about her Barefoot run Britain Sabrina Pace humph was there who came on the podcast I think it’s about two years ago now she was sharing more about her new book Black Sheep finding identity and hope
Through addiction to the outdoors really amazing to see Sabrina to give her a hug before she went on stage Abby Barnes was there as well so Abby Barnes from spend more time in the wild she was working with OS maps and giving some top tips on
Map reading skills um that was in the skills th theater and then blinda Kirk was there as well so blinda is known as Explorer blinda on Instagram and she was the founder of explorers connect and she was talking about improving your mental health through Adventure so if you
Haven’t listened to any of those episodes and you miss the talks then you can listen to to these women on the tough girl podcast that’s Anna mcnf Sabrina Pace humph blinda Kirk and Abby Barnes what else what else what else um cicerone was also there so cicerone is
The guidebook company that I’ve been working with now since 2019 so I helped out at the stand chatting to people about you know what’s their next adventure what’s their next challenge and hopefully you know recommending them a few good guide books to help them with their planning and preparation so it’s
Really good to spend some time with them I saw Sue from the adventure Queen Mother he’s been on the podcast podcast she came on last year to celebrate Mother’s Day so sue actually met me at the end of the southbounds way um she was on her bike and she joined me for
The final day and then she bought me some lovely pins and helped me celebrate so that was super fun CLA rter was there from she paddle Frankie and frit had managed to have a little quick chat with them as well which was awesome I also did a massive
Leaflet drop I managed to get into the venue at about sort of 8:30 on the Saturday morning and went round if there was a table if there was a clear bit of space the tough girl leaflet was there so if you’re one of these one of the people who attended the national outdoor
Expo you picked up my leaflet and are now tuning into the tough girl podcast thank you so much by the Sunday it seems like everybody else had um gotten onto the leaflet drop and there was just leaflets everywhere so I thought right I’m going to change my tactic so
Basically I just went up to women I was like hi do you listen to podcasts have you heard of the tff podcast and a lot of people were saying no so I was like brilliant let me tell you about the St podcast you know incredible women it’s all about increasing amount of female
Role models I’d love you to take a listen and so if you’re one of the brand new listeners from the national outdoor expo thank you so much for tuning in I really really do appreciate it um new episodes this month are coming out every Tuesday and Thursday the podcast is
Being sponsored by innovate is in Partnership we’re doing the March daily Mile Challenge running one mile every single day throughout March well done to everybody who is getting involved running their mile sharing on social media I see you I see the hard work and effort that you are putting in massive
Massive congratulations if you are interested in running and you want to learn more about innovate please do visit their website innovate inov-8 docomo 20 to get a discount so our next episode which is coming out on the 24th of March is with Miriam as Gilbert so
Miriam has been a runner since 1989 an ultra Runner since 2005 and she’s currently training for her 30th Ultra the dawn to Dust to Dawn 24-hour track Ultra in May 2022 mir’s going to be talking more about how she first got into running why she decide to go off for an ultra what
It’s like being 63 years young we learned more about her earliest how she wasn’t athletic how she’s used running to reduce her stress how she’s evolved from running marathon to track races to ultas she talks more about running an ultra with gratitude what it’s like to come in dead last and
Her second Ultra and why it was a joyful experience for her she talks more about how she celebrated her 60th birthday it involved running oh I don’t know I want to tell you now you have to wait and see what it involved but it’s pretty epic yeah she talks more about her training
Dealing with sleep deprivation um uh she also answers lots of quickfire questions as well it’s really really fascinating episode especially if you’re interested in ultra running and wanting to take your running to the next level so new episodes every Tuesday and Thursday at 7:00 a.m. UK time make sure you hit that subscribe
Button so you don’t miss out thank you again for all of your support make sure you tell one friend about the tough girl podcast and spread the love all that’s left for me to say is wherever you are whatever you are doing give it your all
Give it 110% get after it go for it believe in yourself because I believe in you take care lots of love bye go